Saturday, July 13, 2002

Something funny from politics is this whole Vaiko issue. It's as if the NDA government took an egg and splattered it over its own face. I just can't stop laughing.

For those who came in late, some months ago, the government enacted this draconian law called POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) which has many strange things. Aimed mainly at the Islamic organisations like SIMI, it has provisions for arrest without bail, and many other seemingly harsh measures. The relevant one is, if you publicly support a terrorist or a terrorist organisation, you can be jailed.

Now this Vaiko, an ally of the Vajpayee government from tamilnadu, is a vocal supporter of the Lankan Tamil terror group LTTE and he made a public speech in which he supported their casue. Jayalalitha, promptly used POTA and jailed him, and now the BJP and the NDA are at a loss about what to do. It is all so hilarious. Their own law being used against them. The BJP is further compounding the issue by opposing this arrest and saying stupid stuff that can't be good for their image. The message it sends is, POTA is meant only for muslims.